Other forms: dabbled, dabbling, dabbles
To dabble is to try something casually, without committing. Dabble in politics, dabble with paint, just dabbling.
The lack of commitment is the point and the word carries a faint dismissal — dabbling is what people do who are not serious, though it is also how most hobbies begin. It takes in or with. The literal sense is to splash about in shallow water, which is what ducks do. Note dabbler; and that dabble is dab plus the -le of repeated action.
1verbdabbleTo try something casually, without committing.
“He dabbled in painting and photography but never stuck with either.”
2verbsplashTo splash about in shallow water.
“The children dabbled their feet in the stream while their parents had a picnic.”
dabble is a casual trying.
Dabble is dab plus -le, the ending for repeated action, possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen. Dabbling ducks are named for feeding at the surface.
Middle Dutch
dabbelen — to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble
English, today
dabble
From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + le, possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs